Tasmanian Forest Agreement fails - entrenches native forest logging

Blog by Australian Greens forests spokesperson Lee RhiannonTasmanian’s forests are still not safe from logging. The new Tasmanian Forests Agreement does not provide the protection needed to safeguard these unique and precious forest habitats.

A worrying aspect of this Agreement is that it includes an attempt to silence the community. The final decision on the permanent reservation of forests is contingent upon reports from an unelected special council on the behaviour of conservationists involved in protests or market place action.

When Prime Minister Julia Gillard was in Tasmania yesterday she calledon the signatories to the Agreements “to do everything they can to use their abilities to silence those who haven't gone with the mainstream consensus."

This is Senator Milne’s response to this crack down on democratic rights, and her response to the Tasmanian Forests Agreement.

The original aim of the Agreement process is what the Greens have long advocated for: to transition the industry out of native forest logging into a sustainable plantation base and to protect high conservation value forests that had been excluded from past reservation.

The result however has been that native forest logging will be entrenched and subsidised by taxpayer dollars.